Select the radio button beside “Full Scan” and click the “Scan Now” button. If you haven’t tried Defender before or if your computer is acting funny and you’re worried about an obvious threat, it’s best to start with a Full scan.

Microsoft Defender Offline Scan: This option restarts your machine and scans system files and programs while they are not running, which is useful if a piece of malware is currently running and potentially interfering with the scan.

Custom Scan: If you choose this option, Windows Security will ask you for a specific file or folder location that you’d like to scan.The scan may take longer than an hour to complete. This tool involves Windows Defender scanning all. Full Scan: This scans every file on your computer and all running programs as well. Windows Defender features a tool called Real-Time Protection, which is a form of automatic scanning.This usually only takes a few minutes to complete. Quick Scan: Scans folders in your system where threats are usually found, such as the Downloads and Windows folders.

In the “Scan Options” menu, you will see a list of four different types of scans you can perform on your computer using Microsoft Defender.

In the area below the “Current Threats” heading, click “Scan Options.” It’s possible to do a quick scan from here by clicking the “Quick Scan” button. If you haven’t scanned recently, you might want to consider doing a deeper scan. In the sidebar, click “Virus & Threat Protection.”

Windows defender scan time